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Our Lady of Waste Management: Parish-based environmentalism

Parishes are finding that reducing their carbon footprint is not only an environmental issue but a spiritual one, too.

Parishioners at Mary Immaculate Church in East Los Angeles meet monthly in convivencias, or town hall meetings, to discuss parish initiatives. Last autumn, when they learned that 38 million water bottles annually are sent to U.S. landfills, their vote on what the parish should do wasn't even close. Plastic water bottles are now banned from the campus.

Our Lady of Waste Management: Parish-based environmentalism

Parishes are finding that reducing their carbon footprint is not only an environmental issue but a spiritual one, too.

Parishioners at Mary Immaculate Church in East Los Angeles meet monthly in convivencias, or town hall meetings, to discuss parish initiatives. Last autumn, when they learned that 38 million water bottles annually are sent to U.S. landfills, their vote on what the parish should do wasn't even close. Plastic water bottles are now banned from the campus.

Why should parishes go green?

Five reasons Catholic communities should care about cleaning up the environment.

1. You don't have to believe in climate change to believe in its solution. Energy conservation and alternative energy use mean healthier children, improved national security, and lower heating and cooling bills for families and parishes. It's a "no regrets" strategy.

A Franciscan environmental activist recycles some ancient traditions for modern use.

Hundreds of years before the environmental movement, St. Francis of Assisi recognized God in creation and changed his life. Today one of his spiritual sons, Keith Douglass Warner, O.F.M., is encouraging Catholics to do the same.

A Franciscan environmental activist recycles some ancient traditions for modern use.

Hundreds of years before the environmental movement, St. Francis of Assisi recognized God in creation and changed his life. Today one of his spiritual sons, Keith Douglass Warner, O.F.M., is encouraging Catholics to do the same.

Glad you asked: Is it a sin to drive an SUV?

Gas-guzzlers aren't generally chic in Catholic circles. These days many of us are wondering whether we can drive one with a clear conscience. But is it a sin?

Simply defined, to sin is to say "no" to God. It is a rejection of God's free gifts as well as the grace-filled relationship that God always offers. It is to choose what is not good while exercising one's mature free will. Often it is as simple as choosing what is easy or what is the societal norm without using the eyes of faith.

Go outside and play

Falls and fresh air can teach kids the most important lessons of faith and life.

If you want peace, cultivate creation," Pope Benedict XVI said in his 2010 World Day of Peace reflection, arguably a message not just for the new year but for the new decade. With one sentence Benedict adroitly tied together a gang of the major preoccupations of Catholic social teaching with Pope Paul VI's radical 1972 admonishment: "If you want peace, work for justice."

This land is our land: National parks protect God's creation for all

Would you like a demonstration of the Catholic belief that everyone has a right to the beauty of God's creation? Visit a national park.

This October millions of Americans took a stay-cation by watching Ken Burns' gorgeous new film The National Parks: America's Best Idea, enjoying a 12-hour pilgrimage through some of the most beautiful places in the United States, perhaps on the planet.